Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.47 EPS

Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ:WTFC) issued its earnings results on Wednesday. The bank reported $2.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42 by $0.47, Briefing.com reports. Wintrust Financial had a net margin of 17.86% and a return on equity of 13.09%. The business had revenue of $604.77 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $577.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.80 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year.

Wintrust Financial Trading Up 2.1 %

NASDAQ WTFC opened at $97.31 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $98.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $90.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.98. Wintrust Financial has a one year low of $58.12 and a one year high of $105.29. The firm has a market cap of $6.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.06 and a beta of 1.21.

Wintrust Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 8th were paid a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change from Wintrust Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 7th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.85%. Wintrust Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.61%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Edward J. Wehmer sold 9,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.36, for a total value of $943,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 177,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,599,040.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Edward J. Wehmer sold 9,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $99.36, for a total value of $943,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 177,124 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,599,040.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Jeffrey D. Hahnfeld sold 588 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.88, for a total transaction of $57,553.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 3,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $333,770.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 2.0% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,156,440 shares of the bank’s stock worth $449,112,000 after acquiring an additional 119,790 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 1.9% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,928,458 shares of the bank’s stock worth $483,466,000 after acquiring an additional 109,995 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 4.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,795,528 shares of the bank’s stock worth $203,011,000 after acquiring an additional 112,337 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 4.1% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,913,872 shares of the bank’s stock worth $139,616,000 after acquiring an additional 75,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Wintrust Financial by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,338,516 shares of the bank’s stock worth $113,131,000 after acquiring an additional 45,932 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on WTFC. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $109.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $95.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $116.00 price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Wintrust Financial from $103.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.92.

Wintrust Financial Company Profile

Wintrust Financial Corporation operates as a financial holding company. It operates in three segments: Community Banking, Specialty Finance, and Wealth Management. The Community Banking segment offers non-interest bearing deposits, non-brokered interest-bearing transaction accounts, and savings and domestic time deposits; home equity, consumer, and real estate loans; safe deposit facilities; and automatic teller machine (ATM), online and mobile banking, and other services.